Out Of The Darkness

• Carla Rizzi Kelly, Grade 9
• Short Story
• 2019

I remember it all, a thousand flashes before my eyes, then the darkness came. It swallowed everything I knew and loved in one small second. It was gone. Everything was gone. It felt like I was falling into a black abyss of something I couldn't quite remember but something I couldn't quite forget. Then the voice came, the one I knew all too well, pulling me out of the dark void I had fallen into. “Come back to us,” it shouted. I tried to place the voice to someone I knew and that’s when the memories came flooding back.

~Flashback~

Finally, the day is over, after a long exhausting day at school, I quickly left to rush home, eager to take my golden retriever Maddie for a walk in the park. I put my headphones, drowning out the surrounding sounds. I ran. I felt the cool winter air whip against my face, as I weaved past trees and cracks in the pavement. I continued to sprint through small lanes and narrowly avoid cars. I saw a main road coming up but continued to run through it. But I didn’t make it across the road. I felt the sudden impact of a heavy vehicle. I felt pain. Then I saw nothing. The world around me gone, in the blink of an eye. All that was left was the pain and the darkness.

~Flashback over~

My mum. The voice was my mum’s. I could feel tears dripping down my face but they weren’t mine, they were my mum’s. “Mum it’s ok, why are you crying, mum what’s wrong, mum. MUM.” I got no response, no matter how much I shouted, nothing happened. There was someone else in the room with my mum. Their voice wasn’t familiar. They began a serious conversation, that I only caught a few sentences of. “She’s not going to wake up, I’m so sorry.” I blurred out the rest of the conversation. Were they talking about me? Why won’t my body move? “What’s happening to me,” I shouted. I got no response, just an echo of my words into nothingness and a wave of tiredness washing over me.

Almost immediately I felt the warmth spread across my face, as the light slowly crept through the window. I tried to open my eyes, but all I could feel were stubborn eyelids refusing to open. I kept on struggling until they finally opened. Blinking a few times my eyes finally focused. My mum was sitting, curled in a green chair that was beside me. I reached my hand towards her. “Mum,” my voice came out croaky, barely audible, but that was enough to get her attention. She jolted towards me. No words were said. In that moment, I was smothered in a bear hug. It was all that was needed. No words could’ve been used to explain the love and warmth I felt on that day.